


Scraps and bits

by Ibijau



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-29 00:30:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3875617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ibijau/pseuds/Ibijau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>basically, I'm looking through my files and discovering stories I don't remember posting but also know I'll never finish so yeah</p><p>chapter 1: Fili and Kili are each other's One but they are very much not in love<br/>chapter 2: Thorin is adopted by a strange bird that's only around when Ori isn't there</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Fili had never needed anyone as long as he'd had his brother. They had always been close, closer than other siblings they knew, but it had never worried them. With such a small age difference, it wasn't such a surprise. People sometimes mistook them for twins when they didn't know them. When Fili came of age and they felt the Link between them, they just accepted it. It wasn't common for such close kin to be one another's Ones, but it had happened in the past. Their family quickly got used to the idea, and things went on as before. The only difference was that they tried to kiss once or twice, but that felt so strange that they soon gave up on it.

“We'll have to find other people to kiss,” Kili joked one day. “Unless you'd rather not...”

“I'm fine with it, don't worry. I think... I think it's not supposed to be just the two of us anyway? Sometimes I feel a pull... don't you?”

“Not really,” Kili said with a frown. “But you always notice stuff that I don't, right? That's what you get for being the clever one.”

It had surprised Fili, because while he was supposedly the clever one, Kili had always been the more sensitive one. If anything, he should have felt that pull more strongly than Fili... but then again, it did not matter much. The eldest prince was convinced that it would always be the two of them and no one else, never mind that pull. He'd never felt the need for lovers, and even kissing, which he'd long dreamed about, had lost all its charm once it turned out that kissing Kili didn't work.

 

Kili, as it happened, had a different vision of things.

He'd seemed perfectly content with only having his brother's love and friendship at first, but after his own coming of age, he _changed_. They had always liked going to taverns together, but Kili started talking to strangers when they were there. Young, attractive strangers. They were usually blond, and shorter than him, as well as a little shy. Fili only noticed it when Kili stopped flirting with such dwarves.

“I don't have any reasons to flirt anymore,” Kili explained. “I... sort of am courting someone now?”

The betrayal was double: first that Kili could not merely flirt but actually court someone, and then that he had not come directly to Fili to tell him. They had never kept secrets from each other before that day.

“When do I get to meet that person?” Fili asked anyway. “Boy or girl?”

“Boy. And it's... complicated. It'd be better... his family doesn't really know, and we're not sure they'd approve, and... we're both pretty serious about this, but we... want to get to enjoy the nice stuff a bit before we have to fight to be together.”

“All the more reason I should meet him, then. I want to be able to help you when the time comes.”

Kili pouted and grumbled something, to low to be heard.

“What was that?”

“Don't _want_ you to meet him,” the younger prince grunted, looking away. “Not yet. He'll start liking you better if he meets you now. _Everyone_ likes you better.”

And that was another betrayal, because there had never been jealousy between them as far as Fili had known. He'd had sometimes wished for less lessons, less training, and more freedom, the way Kili was granted, but that was it. He suddenly hated his brother's boyfriend for this. Anyone who could make Kili feel like he had to be jealous couldn't be a good person.

“Well, if that's how you feel...”

“It is,” Kili insisted. “He's so nice and sweet and brave and funny... there's no Link between us, but I still like him a lot... maybe more than like, and he... he likes me too. And that's so nice, you know. To have someone like not just because of fated, but just because he genuinely thinks that I'm a nice person.”

That was the last betrayal. They had always been happy of their Link until then. Suddenly, Fili decided that he hated that boy who was taking his brother from him. Because Kili was his, and he was Kili's, and they didn't need anyone, shouldn't have needed anyone.

“Well, enjoy your little fun while you can,” Fili spat at him. “It's not like it's going to last. Everyone knows that there's no _real_ affection possible outside of a Link anyway.”

“Better fake affection outside a Link than forced one inside of it,” Kili retorted, before leaving the room, and Fili wondered if this was what heartbreak felt like.

 

They did not speak for weeks after that. Fili had felt certain that Kili would soon apologize, but he didn't. From what Fili learned through their cousin Gimli, his brother had been truly hurt that anyone could doubt the sincerity and strength of his affections for his boyfriend. This in turn made Fili even angrier. If Kili needed a lover so badly, he should have waited. They had someone waiting for them somewhere, someone to whom they would have a proper Link, instead of this parody of love that Kili had settled for. And maybe, just maybe, Fili was jealous.

And it probably wasn't very mature of him to want his brother to be jealous too, but that was still how Fili ended up in a tavern one night, determined to find himself a lover for the night. It shouldn't have been difficult. He knew he was considered handsome, if nothing else. It ought to have been enough to get him someone... anyone. As long as they were clean and not too ugly, he'd have had just anyone to make Kili jealous.

In the end, anyone was a ginger dwarf about his size, fifteen or twenty years older than him, who smiled like a warg and moved like a spider. The dwarf was the most dangerous looking person Fili had ever seen, and if he'd been smart, he'd never have gone anywhere near him.

Luckily he was drunk to stop caring about smart, and that was how he ended up asking the other dwarf's name.

How they went from that, to kissing in the bedroom of an inn, Fili wasn't fully sure. He might have drunk more than he thought, because a few things felt like a blur. He did not want to remember anyway. He only wanted to do this and get an idea of what it was that had pushed Kili to betray him that way.

He did still remember that ginger dwarf pushing him on a bed. He also remembered watching that dwarf undress, slowly, layer by layer, hints of a knife shining here and there, until he was naked.

“Have you ever been with a bearer, kid?”

“Never,” Fili admitted, staring at a body that was not so different from his own, but still different enough.

“Have you ever been with _anyone_ at all?” the dwarf asked, smirking.

“No.”

“You are honest,” the other exclaimed, clearly surprised. “I think you're the first virgin I've met to admit to it. That's rather sweet.”

His tone of voice rather implied that _sweet_ wasn't necessarily a compliment.

“Very well then. How about I teach you how to get me off, and if you're a good and dutiful student, I'll make you finish? And if I'm not satisfied, then you can go spend the rest of the night with your own hand.”

“Seems fair enough,” Fili agreed.

It was strange, in the end. He enjoyed touching the other dwarf, caressing soft skin and learning how to please him, but there was something wrong about it. He should never have touched anyone that way, not anyone but Kili and since they did not want to share this particular intimacy, they should never have touched anyone... And he never would have, if Kili hadn't done it first.

It felt a different sort of wrongness if he imagined it was his brother touching him. Sex with someone he did not desire felt less of an abomination than sex with someone he shouldn't have desired.

Fili felt guilty for how much he enjoyed it. At least, he was less angry at Kili afterwards, because if that was what he was getting from his lover, then he could be excused the initial betrayal at least. Calling it _love_ was still an insult to their Link, but Fili decided he would allow his brother to have fun however he wanted.

He, on the other hand, would now wait to find their other soulmate, as was _right_.

 

It was entirely accidental that barely a week later, Fili went back to the same tavern and bedded that ginger dwarf again. He'd been bored, nothing more. Kili had not been home a single night that entire week.

And maybe, just _maybe_ , Fili had been incredibly horny, and plagued with memories of his night with that dwarf.

“Coming for seconds?” the dwarf asked with a smirk.

“If you're as bored as I am.”

“Kid, for a pretty face like yours, I always am.”

That second time was as nice as the first, nicer even because Fili had a clearer idea of how things worked. It was all good fun, and when they were done, the prince let it slip that he wouldn't mind doing it again. The ginger dwarf, who'd been peacefully lying down with a satisfied grin on his face, sat up and stared at him.

“I don't do sentiment, kid,” he warned. “You're cute, and for a virgin you're not too bad a fuck, but I'm not gonna do sentiment. I've got a One. Don't believe in that shit, but I've got a One anyway, and that's troublesome enough already, so I'm don't plan on getting attached to anyone else.”

Fili shrugged, and looked away. He wasn't sure why anyone who had a One would go and have sex with strangers they met in a tavern, but then again, he wasn't much better. Whatever reasons that dwarf had for it, he wouldn't share them.

“I've got a One too,” Fili replied. “And we're happy together, we just... sex isn't really an option.”

“Well, that sure sucks. Fine then. I'm not always in town, but when I'm around, I'll be glad to blow you, long as you do the same for me.”

“It'd be my pleasure,” the prince grinned.

It was wrong, it really was, and Fili knew it. He shouldn't have desired anyone who wasn't his One. But he had no other option, he knew that too. And at least, unlike Kili, he was honest enough to know that this wasn't, could never be love.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as far as I remember, Ori was Nori's One, and he was also Kili's lover. Then after everyone got to Bilbo's house, Fili realised that Ori was also that second soulmate that he had felt, and everything was awful for everyone involved


	2. werepotoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ori changes into a bird at full moon and Thorin has a crush

The bird appeared for the first time shortly after they had left the shire, on a rainy night. Thorin had taken the first turn to keep watch, and soon after the others had gone to sleep, he had been joined by that odd feathery creature. It was a large bird, as large as a crow, with a thick, short body and long wings and tail of a brownish shade. It had a rather ridiculous look, all things considered, with its large bright yellow eyes and its small bill. It was also strangely at ease in their camp, and when Thorin first noticed it, the bird was standing near the fire, as if to warm itself.

“Trying to escape the rain, are you?” Thorin chuckled. “I cannot blame you.”

The prince half expected the bird to fly away after hearing his voice, but it did not. Instead it turned its head toward Thorin, its large eyes making it look impossibly confused and almost offended that anyone had dared to talk to it. The dwarf laughed, as quietly as he could so that he would not wake anyone up. He then proceeded to ignore the bird until it was time for Nori to take the next turn.

“There is a bird by the fire,” he warned their security expert. “It does not seem aggressive nor dangerous. There is no need to drive it away, but do not bother it either. How is your brother?”

“Still a bit feverish. Happens to him, that why Dori wasn't too happy about him coming, but you know how kids are... he'll be better in a couple days. He's used to it, won't be a problem.”

Thorin nodded, and didn't make any comments. The boy hadn't looked particularly ill, but he had seemed particularly embarrassed when Dori had claimed he couldn't be on watch duty that night and hadn't protested. The lack of protest, as Thorin had learned with his nephews, was a sure sign that something was indeed so wrong that denial wasn't an option.

Ori did look tired in the morning, his dark skin marked by darker shadows due to the lack of sleep, but not so much that he could not ride his pony and do his part of the chores. It was agreed that he would not be on duty that night either, and that was the end of it.

Concerning the strange bird, he was seen again that night, and the following one, but by the fourth day after his first appearance, he was gone. Gandalf was rather unhappy to not have been told about it as soon as it had come, grumbling it might have been a dangerous creature spying on them, but the dwarves disagreed. All those who had seen it claimed that it had look too perpetually horrified and confused to be any sort of danger, not to mention its ridiculous cry. Kili, the only one to have heard it, made them all laugh trying to imitate it, and it was agreed that no creature of darkness could be so silly.

 

The bird returned toward the end of their stay in Rivendell, and at first it angered Thorin. Two weeks had passed since he had shown his map to Elrond, and since then it had been made extremelly clear to him that he was forcefully invited to stay until some matters concerning Gandalf were settled. The bird arrived two days before the date Thorin and the wizard had agreed the company should escape, and the prince took it for a bad omen.

“It might be a spy of the elves,” he told Dwalin.

They were watching the bird together. It had decided to pester Fili and Kili, flying around them and scaring them with its odd, whiny cry. The boys were laughing like children, and at any other time it would have made Thorin smile to see them so merry. But the bird should not have been there. It should not have been able to follow them, and even less to find the elves' valley.

“I should show it to Gandalf.”

“Isn't he busy with his lordly friends?” Dwalin protested.

“I'll take the bird to him,” Thorin retorted, walking towards his nephews.

Because he remembered seeing men do it with falcons, Thorin rose one arm and whistled, tapping his hand against his forearm. Much to everyone's surprise, the bird obeyed, and immediately flew to him. A sure sign that it was a tame bird, if more proof had been needed; the bird had been too comfortable around them since the beginning.

“Let's take you to the wizard then,” Thorin grunted, “and see what he has to say about you.”

The bird cried once, something that almost sounded like laughter, but it remained on Thorin's arm when the prince left the room. It looked around it with clear curiosity, turning its head to let its big yellow eyes glance all around. At one point it tried to peck at one of the beads in the prince's hair, but Thorin gently pushed him away and it did not try again. It was oddly well behaved, even for a tamed bird, and the dwarf hoped that their wizard would have an explanation for it.

It proved difficult enough to convince someone that he truly needed to see Gandalf this very moment, but in the end the elf who had first welcomed them to Rivendell agreed to help. When the wizard came at last, he was with lord Elrond, which rather angered Thorin. He might have wanted to talk to Gandalf about private business, so why had the elf come?

“Is that the bird you had talked about?” the wizard asked, glancing at the bird on Thorin's arm. “A rather funny looking fellow indeed. I see why it amused the lot of you so much. I've never seen anything like it.”

“I have,” Elrond claimed. “But not in many years.”

That the elf would know about the bird was annoying enough. But as he spoke, the elven lord held out his hand toward Thorin, and the bird immediately flew to him like a trained pet. If not for the obvious surprise on Elrond's face, the dwarf would have suspected some foul elven trick.

“They are called potoos, I believe,” the elf announced, “though they have different names in different places... I think I once heard the word ibijau to name them. They are perfectly harmless, but very good at hiding. The real question is why it would be here. They come from the South-East, I have not seen one in this part of the world since the greatest days of Numenor.”

As if he were pleased with this introduction, the bird nuzzled against the elf's cheek, which made Elrond smile and Thorin glare.

“They are not naturally dangerous,” the elven lord assured them, distractedly petting the bird's stomach. “I feel some magic surrounding this one, but it is not of a harmful sort, and the bird has no ill intentions.”

“So we should let it follow us, if we ever continue our travels?” Gandalf asked. “Don't you think you could keep it here, for its own safety?”

At these words, the bird let out a loud cry, and flew back to Thorin, as if to seek protection. The prince felt more pleased by it than he would have cared to admit, while Gandalf seemed annoyed and Elrond deeply amused.

“I fear it might not let itself be kept in a cage,” the elf noted with a smile. “I think it is smarter than most birds, and will know how to keep itself out of trouble. After all, it has so far, hasn't it?”

“I am not sure I like it” Gandalf admitted, glancing suspiciously at the potoo. “Still, I suppose there is no choice. Was there anything else you wanted to ask me, master Thorin? No? Then I suppose it would be best if your returned to your companions, and proceeded as you would have without the bird's presence.”

Thorin nodded, and left quickly, glad not to have to be in the elf's presence a moment longer. Lord Elrond was kind, and it greatly annoyed the prince who was not in a mood to reconsider his opinion of elves. He had too much to do to be doubting himself.

When he came back to the room where they were staying, Thorin was warmly welcomed back. He told the company what little he had learned about the bird, and as he spoke the creature left him and flew to Dori who scratched its head as if it were a beloved pet. There was no way around it then, the bird had been adopted, as much as their ponies had been once. And it was maybe not such a bad thing the prince decided, watching his nephew trying to find a way to play with the potoo.

“Where is Ori?” he asked Balin. “I'm surprised he's not fooling around with the boys.”

“Went to bed early, his brothers said he had a headache. But Dori promised that he wouldn't have any problems leaving with us tomorrow... if we are still leaving?”

“First light of dawn as we had agreed, Gandalf confirmed there were no changes to the plan.”

“And the bird...”

“Is no danger to us, Elrond said, and I do not think he would lie.”

Balin nodded, and they dropped the subject entirely, watching their strange little winged friend play with Fili and Kili. Thorin only regret was that young Ori was not around to join in their game: he would certainly have been very amused by that odd bird.

Still, when morning came, the two young princes described the potoo to the company's scribe with as much detail as they could manage. And with this, Ori drew a strikingly close portrait of the bird on which everyone congratulated him, even Thorin who said that the potoo looked ready to fly out of the page and onto his shoulder. Ori's dark cheeks and ears went very pink at the praise, which made him even more handsome than usual.

 

The bird came again for their last night at Rivendell, and then disappeared again, which had Thorin wondering if Gandalf had found a cage for it after all. It was for the best though, because their travel was taking them to more dangerous lands, and the bird might have put himself in danger, or them.

 


End file.
